Storytelling + Marketing = And They Lived Happily Ever After.

???“I was late to the gym this morning.”

??? “This morning I awoke with a rare feeling; a feeling that I had just beaten my alarm and would be on time to my F45 class. Squinting at the clock on my bedside table, I saw that I was mistaken and was in fact about to be the latest I had ever been.”

??? “I went shopping on my lunch break.”

???“On a whim during my lunch break, I decided to visit a little vintage shop that I’d haunted during my teenage years. Delighted to see that they were still operational after all these years, I lingered – trailing my hand along blue and red chiffon dresses, snapping photos of go-go boots and deliberating over whether to buy an old, beaten up leather jacket for my husband. Of course, time cracked its whip (being the cruel mistress that it is) and I took my leave, promising the shaggy-haired man behind the counter that I would return.”

***

In the last few years, there has been an increasing emphasis on using storytelling in marketing. And as someone who delights in all aspects of storytelling, I couldn’t be more thrilled about this development. Simply put, using narrative makes facts more compelling. As this article cleverly demonstrates (the lobbyists tale is a good one), people are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s wrapped in a story. I experienced such a phenomenon myself at the tender age of six, when a classmate told me I couldn’t touch a particular wall because I would die. She even corroborated her story with the (fictional, I later learned) death of a little boy from simply placing one hand upon the offending wall. I avoided it like the plague for the rest of my primary school career and was embarrassingly old when I realised the whole thing was a lie.

So…storytelling helps to give facts (and lies) ‘staying power’; the ability to live rent-free in your head. This in itself is a great start when using narrative as part of your marketing campaign strategy. But how else can the art of a good yarn help you to spread your message??

Well – crucially – storytelling also helps to humanise your brand. I’ll use advertising as an example here (and I think this takes me to story number two!): I grew up with parents who passionately hated advertising. We were the channel surfing family who would groan in unison as soon as an ad break began. However, my parents loved this one particular program on TV; a program that showcased all the best ads from around the world. Yes, the irony is delicious. I distinctly remember my parents gleefully remarking on all the funny, clever ads and saying, “if only all commercials were like this”. Invariably, each ad told a story. We got invested in each character’s arc, if only for 30 seconds. And you know what; of the few that still stick out in my mind, I also remember the brands behind the advertisements.

Jumping to the top of this article, I've attempted some examples to show that you can turn just about anything into a story. As we learn more about the concept of mindfulness, I find myself rejecting 'mundane'. If you mindfully go about your day, there are so many hidden treasures to be found in the little moments. There's comedy to be found in waking up late for the?gym (and note the sneaky F45 plug). There's magic to be found in a musty old vintage shop. So what's a moment that you could examine closer to spin a tall - or small - tale about? How could you use this tale to humanise your message, or to make it more interesting or memorable?

With so many mediums available in which to tell our stories, I think storytelling and content marketing is just getting started - and I'm very excited to see its ascent.